Senior Financial Exploitation

Mar 20, 2016

By Rick Law, Elder Law and Estate Planning Attorney in Aurora, IL.  Senior advocates at the Estate Planning Center at Law Elder Law located on Church Rd. in Aurora, Illinois, just off the Farnsworth exit of the I-88 tollway.

Instances of financial exploitation are on the rise and senior citizens are frequent targets.

What is even more disturbing is that about 90 percent of the financial exploitation of seniors is committed by family members or people that they should be able to trust, such as caregivers.

Seniors, and especially seniors with dementia, are the perfect victims because they generally won’t report the abuse. They won’t report the exploitations for a variety of reasons, ranging from being embarrassed to fear that if they turn in their relative or caregiver they will be put in a nursing home because there will be nobody left to care for them in their home.

Amy Flynn, an elder abuse supervisor at Senior Services, states that a significant amount of the financial exploitation cases that she sees involve an abuse of a power of attorney.

Flynn notes that the majority of the cases combine financial exploitation and emotional abuse. “They go hand in hand together because an abuser will manipulate mom or dad’s emotions in order to exploit money from them. More often than not, those cases do involve some form of abuse of a power of attorney.”

In a recent elder abuse case, the daughter constantly told her elderly mother, “You were never there for me as a child. You were a horrible mother. You never bought me the things that I wanted.” The mother was suffering from dementia and the daughter convinced her to sign paperwork giving the daughter power of attorney for financial matters.

Soon after the documents were signed, the daughter used her mother’s funds to buy herself a vacation home in Florida. Likely, the daughter felt entitled to the vacation home.

If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now.

Sincerely,

Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees.

Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!